The Week That Was...

While the tabloids and rumour mills normally wait until at least the Tour de France, the wheels have already begun turning on the ?whose moving where at the end of the season? merry-go-round.

Belgian sources report that Italian Paolo Bettini is reported to have been offered a contract worth ?2 million to join the German T-Mobile squad.Il Grillo?s contract is due to expire at the end of 2006 and he is reported to be interested in again leading a spring campaign having, for the past two years, been pushed into second place behind Tom Boonen at his current team, Quick.Step. Team Director, Patrick Lef?v?re, is not thought to be able to match such an offer although the Germans are denying any truth in the story.

With just 15 km?s to go in the race, the three chose not to stop at a railway crossing as they chased eventual winner Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC).As a result of the commissaries decision on the day, Tom Boonen (Quick.Step), Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) were promoted to 2nd, 3rd and 4th place.

The UCI are apparently to hear the complaint from the team managers and the overall placing may yet change again.

In what many consider to be a fruitless task, the Discovery Channel team has launched a bid to discover the next Lance Armstrong, through a program launched last week, known as ?Race to Replace?

Lance Armstrong will be "the centrepiece of the campaign,? said a media release by the Discovery Channel.It went on to add that the program will ?include a major cycling event, exclusive online content and an extensive marketing and advertising campaign, lending his support to the team from the sidelines. Armstrong will also lend his vibrant image and brand to the campaign as it follows the journey to find the next team leader who will replace Armstrong and on to victory."

Billy Campbell, Chairman of the Discovery Channel added that, "Lance is entrenched in the success of the team and continues to be an inspiration and iconic hero both in the United States and abroad. And now that he has hung up the jersey, his role will change so that a new leader will emerge from a stellar group of athletes. Lance's hunger to see the team succeed has only grown, and we look forward to serving as mentor and friend off the bike."

Following last week?s crash in the Giro, Alessandro Petacchi has already undergone surgery on his broken knee cap, at the San Rossore Clinic in Pisa on Wednesday.

The successful two hour operation was undertaken using just local anesthetic.

"The operation was more complicated than usual, but it seems all went very well," said Petacchi. "Being awake while operated on did have a certain effect on me - they talked to me as if they weren't doing something delicate. I didn't feel any pain, but it was strange not to feel my legs anymore. I will have a splint and walk with crutches for five weeks, and I hope that the control in three weeks' time will allow me to anticipate a bit. I have a big desire to return to racing and winning, but I don't want to compromise my recovery. I still have some years ahead of me in my career."

Dick Pound, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, last week advised that the body were considering banning altitude tents and other devices used by athletes that create hypoxic conditions, promoting the production of more red blood cells. They said that such devices are "probably contrary to the spirit of the sport.?

Pound said, "We have an interesting discussion forthcoming with respect to the whole issue of hypoxic chambers and the whole concept of artificially induced hypoxic conditions. This has been an issue that has gone back and forth in the sports community and the business community for a number of years.?

"Our medical authorities agree that the creation of these conditions can be performance enhancing. Our ethics and education committee has concluded that the use of these devices is probably contrary to the spirit of sport, and it will be up to the executive committee to decide how it wants to proceed with it.?

Lastly this week, we?d just like to let you know about a new development launched on Roadcycling.com.We've launched a new feature called ?cycling search.? This new feature enables us to provide search results that are tailored to Roadcycling.com?s features, interviews and stories.Using learning technology, our cycling search delivers search results that improve over time to become customized to the interests of you, Roadcycling.com readers. While changes won?t be immediately visible, we hope that over the coming weeks, you?ll see a notable change. The more you use it for cycling-related searches, the better it will get at finding cycling information for you! Check it out at http://www.roadcycling.com/search and why not bookmark the page today?